FACIAL PALSY AND KINESIOLOGY TAPE
KINESIOLOGY TAPE The seventh cranial nerve is the facial nerve.
The facial nerve provides sensation to the face and helps the facial muscles to maintain their tone and power. It is the intact connection between the nerve and the brain that helps the muscles to retain their strength to move our facial muscles.
However, damage to the facial nerve breaks the connection and the facial muscles become weak resulting in inability to make facial expression or facial movements.
Facial palsy occurs when there is weakness or damage to the facial nerve and face droops owing to weakness in the facial muscles on either one of both side of the face, depending on whether or not one or both nerve is damaged.
Mostly, facial palsy occurs on one side of the face. However both faces can be affected but this rarely happens.
The most effective treatment of facial palsy may be physical therapy. Physiotherapy will help reduce your pain, and other discomfort such as numbness.
Physiotherapy also helps strengthen the facial muscles with specific techniques.
Some of these techniques may involve using electrical stimulation, kinesiology taping, facial massage( dry), as well as teaching facial exercises to restore the functional loss.
Most therapists, treat this condition without using kinesiology tape but the indication of this is very essential. One side facial palsy causes one side facial drooping.
This is the inability of the muscles on the weaker side of the face to neutralize the force of the muscles on the stronger side of the face and so, allow the stronger side to pull the weaker side to itself.
Due to this, in the treatment, kinesiology tape is essential to reinforce the weaker muscles to resist the force, thereby preventing further pulling.
The condition may worsen even without using the kinesio tape since patients tend to utilize only the stronger side of the face which then pulls the weaker side even the more.
Apply the kinesio tape after sessions of the facial massage, exercises and the electrical stimulation for the patient to go home with it.
Know that the indication of kinesio tape is variable. It is very essential to use it when treating facial palsy that has affected one side of the face.
Using it will not only resist the opposing force from the stronger side, but will also improve muscle tone, reduce pain and facilitate the progress of your treatment.
The application of kinesiology or kinesio tape is called kinesiology taping.
BASIC CONCEPT ABOUT ACCESSORY AND PHYSIOLOGICAL MOVEMENT.
The physiological and accessory movements are important in physiotherapy.
Having knowledge on them is essential in terms of joint movement.
What is physiological movement???
This is an observable movement which can be achieved when a joint is moved either passively or actively. The movement is visible.
Examples of physiological movements are
Flexion, Extention, adduction, abduction ulnar and radial deviation, medial and lateral rotations etc of joints.
Physiological movement depends on accessory movement. That is, before physiological movement, accessory movement should be restored or functional.
Accessory movement is a small movement that occurs within the joint capsule which is not observable and can only be achieved only when a joint is passively moved. It is also known as joint play.
The movement of joint can either be physiological movement or accessory movement. But a joint which has accessory movement problem, may similarly have physiological movement. Accessory movement therefore has greater influence on physiological movement.
Accessory movement need to be given attention as much as we want to achieve physiological movement. Examples of accessory movements are gliding, rolling, distraction, spinning, traction, etc.
Sometimes, you may exhaust your whole time trying to gain physiological movement in a specific joint as a therapist, but lo and behold, all your efforts turned to be futile. This is because you may have to restore accessory movement first before you may be able to achieve your physiological movement.
In circumstances like that, consider the corresponding accessory movement that occurs in that angle to cause or bring about the particular physiological movement.
Example, A therapist wants to gain full knee flexion but upon several attempts and techniques used, he still could not gain full ROM.
This is because, before knee is flexed fully, the tibial bone glides posteriorly as the leg moves posteriorly. So should there be a restriction in the posterior gliding, then full physiological movement (Flexion ) would not be achieved as well. Therefore in that case perform more posterior gliding to achieve the physiological movement.
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